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Nintendo has won a dispute with sharehosting website operator Dstorage which failed to remove pirated Nintendo games from its website 1fichier.com, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

The Paris Court of Appeals has sided with Nintendo on the matter for a second time after previously delivering the same verdict in May 2021. Nintendo took legal action against Dstorage after it failed to remove pirated Nintendo games from its website.

After winning the dispute against Dstorage for a second time, Nintendo declared in a statement that it is "pleased with the decision" and is calling this a victory for anti-piracy and a "significant" moment for "the entire games industry. Dstorage has been ordered to pay €442,750 in compensation plus a further €25,000 to cover the cost of legal fees, but the operator has the option to appeal if it wants to.

Here's Nintendo's statement in full:

"Nintendo is pleased with the decision of the Paris Court of Appeals, as it again sends a clear message that in refusing to remove or withdraw access to unauthorised copies of video games despite prior notification, sharehosting services such as Dstorage (1fichier) are liable under French law and must remove or block access to such content and may be liable to pay compensation to those rights holders whose intellectual property rights have been infringed.

The Court’s finding of liability against Dstorage is significant not only for Nintendo, but also for the entire games industry. It will prevent sharehosters like 1Fichier from claiming that a prior decision from a court will be needed before pirated content has to be taken down, and additionally the Court decision confirms what rights holders have to give notice of when claiming that notified content infringes copyright or trademark rights."

Nintendo has previously taken other sharehosting platform holders to court over similar issues. In 2021, it won a $2.1 million lawsuit against RomUniverse.

[source gamesindustry.biz]